National Museum of Cambodia

(National Museum; Map p48; St 13 & St 178; admission US$3, camera/video US$1/3; 8am-5pm) Located just north of the Royal palace, the National Museum of Cambodia is housed in a graceful terracotta structure of traditional design (built 1917-20), with an inviting courtyard garden. The museum is home to the world's finest collection of khmer sculpture - a millennium's worth and more of masterful khmer design.
     The museum comprises four pavilions, facing
the pretty garden. Most visitors start left and continue in a clockwise, chronological direction. The
first significant - including the relatively intact head, shoulders and two arms- of an immerse bronze reclining Vishnu statue recovered from the Western Mebon temple near Angkor Wat in 1936.
     Continue into the left pavilion , where the pre-Angkorian collection begins. It illustrates the journey from the human form of Indian sculpture to the more divine form of Khmer sculpture form the 5th to 8th centuries. Highlights include an imposing eight-armed Vishnu statue from the 6th or 7th century found at Phnom Da (p202), and a staring Harihara,combining the attributes of Shiva and Vishnu.

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